Author Notes: At first glance, this is a shockingly brash dressing. April Bloomfield uses not just lemon juice, but whole lemon segments, and more mustard than could possibly seem like a good idea. But she also knows about restraint, and adds just enough addictive nips of caper and shallot to keep you going, and gentler undercurrents of lemon juice, salt, and sugar. At The Spotted Pig, she serves it with a fried pig's ear salad, but salads with other fatty meats, cheeses or avocado work too. Bloomfield says finely chopped parsley is a nice addition. Adapted very slightly from A Girl and Her Pig (Ecco, 2012) - Genius Recipes

Makes about 1 cup

2 medium lemons

3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (choose one whose flavor you like on its own -- we used Maille)

2 tablespoons drained capers, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt

1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Segment the lemons over a bowl to catch the juices (see note below). Set aside.

Squeeze the juice from the membranes into a separate bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and stir well.

Add the lemon segments and toss gently to coat them without breaking them up. Use straightaway or chill in the fridge, covered, for up to an hour.

Note: To segment the lemons: Use a sharp knife to cut off just enough of the fruit's top and bottom to expose a full circle of the flesh on either end. Stand the lemon on one of its ends, place your knife point at the seam where the fruit meets the pith, and use a gentle sawing motion to cut away a wide strip of pith and skin, following the curve of the fruit from top to bottom. Repeat the process until all you have left is a nice, round, naked fruit. If you've missed any white pith, trim it off. Make a cut down either side of each segment, right against the membrane, and gently pry out each segment, one at a time (see slideshow). Flick out any seeds, and set the segments aside in a bowl, reserving the juicy membranes.

This is delicious. I used the juice of two lemons, rather than the segments, and replaced the superfine sugar with agave, as that's what I had on hand. My guests commented on how good it was, without any prompting, so that's a good sign. :)

Yes, squeeze the juice out of the membrane; but I don't know how much juice would come out. But you can also do like me, skip the segmenting process and just use 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice combined with with 1 tsp grated lemon zest.